brighton or sandringham fits the bill. i hope you don't have images of bondi or the gold coast in your head though.

I haven't had an images in my head yet Haven't done much research

If you're in Melbourne, I'd suggest not living by the beach: it's just a bay, there are no waves or excitement there. I think you'd be better off finding an apartment in Windsor/Prahran/Richmond, and head down to Torquay/Sorrento/Great Ocean Road on a road trip.

Don't get me wrong, St Kilda beach is a nice place... but that's for taking a girl out for a drink, not for swimming etc.

Brighton or Sandy? No way. St Kilda hands down.

Brighton is too full of rich people and not close whilst Sandringham is just not as close either.


Stk is full of travelers. You'll have the best time there.


Edit: and what josem said. The beach isn't really for waves. The area is good for social stuff.

A few variables need to be answered to respond to this:

Budget?
Length of stay?
Type of accommodation?
"20 mins" by foot, car or public transport?
Interests? (eg Aussie Tennis Open on later in month)
Age(s)?
Staying for Aussie Millions (23 Jan-10 Feb)?
On route to elsewhere? or Melb-based? (eg Virgin Airlines have some specials on until Jan 3- {for travel from approx. Jan 29 onwards} Sydney:$89 {all AUD, one-way}, Brisbane $105, Adelaide $79, Cairns $159, Darwin $149, Gold Coast $89)

You might be better placed to scour through: Wotif for accom, MYKI re public transport, visitvictoria for tourism and then come back with more specific questions.

Potentially moving to Melbourne for a year, and I appreciate all the work done in this thread, which is incredibly long

However, I did not see much about whether setting up banking for poker is doable as an American citizen. Is this possible? Which banks particularly?

krmont22,

Any major bank (Westpac; Commonwealth; ANZ; NAB) will serve you.

Smaller banks (in the Australian market) will also be happy to cater for you, such as INGDirect (which I use) and HSBC.

I formerly used Citibank, but found them not to be very helpful on gaming issues. They were happy to accept my PokerStars salary into my account, but made it a hassle to make transactions to/from PartyPoker (this was ~5 years ago, my recollection might be off - it might have been BetFair or some other gaming organisations that they had an issue with).

Can any Americans confirm the above? I have found opening bank accounts with non-residence visas in other countries to be very difficult for Americans.

If you're planning on moving to Australia for a year, and don't a visa that permits residency, then you have bigger issues than opening a bank account...

What type of visa do / will you have?

I was planning on getting the 1 year holiday/work visa since I am US citizen.

I would say pretty straightforward - Commonwealth Bank for example https://www1.commbank.com.au/eforms/movingtoaustralia/

Just updating that I applied online and got approved for the 462 one year working and travel visa without much hassle. I even had to admit to a very limited criminal history of entering a casino underaged (misdemeanor) which I just had to explain via e-mail correspondence. I did not have to provide fbi background check, state police check, health documents, or anything else like some other stories I saw in this thread and online.

I will contact commonwealth bank and see what they say about online poker players and opening accounts as a US citizen on the 462 visa and report back. Looking forward to Australia

You wont have any problems opening a bank account on the working holiday visa.

I mean how are employers going to pay you if you don't have a bank account ?

Don't even mention being an online poker player, just tell them you are on a working holiday visa and want to open a bank account. Show them your visa and job done, its that simple.

Also Australia is awesome, you will have a blast.

I will be heading to Australia and spending seven full days there plus a half day on either end. Flights are into and out of Sydney.

Given the short amount of time and the size of Australia I doubt I'll be able to visit more than two cities/regions so was wondering what the best approach would be. Sydney area+cairns and Great Barrier Reef? Sydney+Melbourne? Sydney +Uluru? Maybe kangaroo island or something similar?

Any tips/advice from Aussies or others would be appreciated.

What time of year?

Definitely not Uluru or Kangaroo Island. Also I like Melbourne but Sydney + Melbourne and nothing else in one trip is too much hanging out in cities.

I would go to Sydney plus one or two spots on the east coast somewhere north of Sydney. Where exactly depends on what you like and on what time of year it is.

I agree entirely with this. Why are you going to Australia? What do you want to see? Beaches, deserts, culture, historical stuff, sport?

Thank you for the fast replies.

I am going to Australia for vacation. I will be in Singapore on business and managed to tag on some extra time to visit Australia while I am in the region. As I have been most everywhere in SE Asia / East Asia I wanted to give Australia a try. I live in the US so may not have too many chances to get to Oz given the distance and travel time here.

I will be going in March so weather should be mild.

I am interested in nature and culture, particularly anything unique to Australia. Not a huge interest in beaches or historical stuff, as I live on the beach currently and I dont think my short time would be enough to really get into the historical stuff beyond visiting this or that site to check a box etc. I would like to see some of the unique Australian wildlife out in the wild, not sure where the best area for this would be.

As my flights are into and out of Sydney that will likely be my "city" portion of the trip, so I guess the question would be where else should I be going on the trip given my stated interests and the time of year.

Thanks in advance

I don't know what you can see close to Sydney but I struggle to think of any Australian animal that is more impressive to see in the wild than in a wildlife park or on TV.

Kangaroo's and Wallabies jump about aimlessly
Koala's sit in forks in trees and don't move
Emu's are scruffy looking birds that run around like headless chickens
Dingo's look exactly like pet dogs
All the birds are pretty colours exactly as they look in photos.

If you don't really care for beaches come to Melbourne. It's a more enjoyable place to walk around and explore. The vibe here is not as busy as Sydney and more friendly in general.

You might even be able ttyl catch a game of Australian rules football if you are so inclined. It's unique to Australia and is the country's #1 sporting code

If you mean like Koalas, Platypus, Wombats etc, they are endemic to the East Coast, but especially in the Murray River/Riverina area.

Major towns in the area are Albury/Wodonga, Echuca and Wagga Wagga (Australia's biggest inland city).

There are also paddle steamer tours of the Murray river which are a different way to see it.

Kangaroos are everywhere.

Don't forget about camels and wild horses. We have plenty of them too.

Hey guys I'm currently in Byron Bay, I'm staying with 3 non working, non poker players and was wondering the cheapest possible way to get from Byron to Brisbane? Greyhound @$42 seems expensive

Have u tried this for $25?

http://www.ozroadtrip.com.au/byron-to-brisbane-bus.htm

I have a hard time imagining that you're going to find a significantly cheaper option.

These guys claim to offer prices from $29: http://www.ozroadtrip.com.au/

That's just the first page of a Google search for "cheapest byron bay to brisbane"

How long did the process take? When did you first apply?